I also posted this on another forum.
At first I thought it was one of our dogs scratching at the door to get in, but there is definitely something in our house air duct trying to scratch its way out. I'm hearing the noise from the first floor kitchen register (mounted on the wall near the ceiling). The air handler is in the basement directly below. There are floor mounted registers on the second floor and none that lead to the attic so I think it's safe to assume it's trapped in the basement.
I do catch the occasional mouse. Anyway, what are my options here? Video tape me opening up the air handler and then selling the hilarity that ensues to the highest paying tabloid news agency? I have access to lots of dry ice. I could drop pounds of dry ice pellets down the register and try to freeze/suffocate it (did this before to a mouse caught in the dog food bin) then go find it later? Let it die and live with the aroma? Call an exterminator? How much is that going to cost? Is this a job for an exterminator or HVAC guy?
I'm wondering how it got in there in the first place. Maybe it got curious when walking across a floor vent, went in, and couldn't get back up and eventually found its way to the lowest point. We have two small kids so it wouldn't surprise me if they dropped food down one of those registers or a piece of dog food got swept down into a register and the mouse (assuming it's a mouse) found it's way down there.
When I get home today (maybe with a bin of dry ice), I'll knock on the air handler and see if I hear any scratching.
This is basically how I remember my air handler looking--except I have two returns entering from opposite sides--one from the 1st and 2nd floor and one from the basement. If a mouse is trapped in the system and found its way down here, it would have to be in the supply plenum, right? It couldn't get from there to the blower section (as marked in the picture) without making its way through the blower motor. I ask because we ran the AC last night and unless I have a very talented mouse, it couldn't have crossed through.
At first I thought it was one of our dogs scratching at the door to get in, but there is definitely something in our house air duct trying to scratch its way out. I'm hearing the noise from the first floor kitchen register (mounted on the wall near the ceiling). The air handler is in the basement directly below. There are floor mounted registers on the second floor and none that lead to the attic so I think it's safe to assume it's trapped in the basement.
I do catch the occasional mouse. Anyway, what are my options here? Video tape me opening up the air handler and then selling the hilarity that ensues to the highest paying tabloid news agency? I have access to lots of dry ice. I could drop pounds of dry ice pellets down the register and try to freeze/suffocate it (did this before to a mouse caught in the dog food bin) then go find it later? Let it die and live with the aroma? Call an exterminator? How much is that going to cost? Is this a job for an exterminator or HVAC guy?
I'm wondering how it got in there in the first place. Maybe it got curious when walking across a floor vent, went in, and couldn't get back up and eventually found its way to the lowest point. We have two small kids so it wouldn't surprise me if they dropped food down one of those registers or a piece of dog food got swept down into a register and the mouse (assuming it's a mouse) found it's way down there.
When I get home today (maybe with a bin of dry ice), I'll knock on the air handler and see if I hear any scratching.
This is basically how I remember my air handler looking--except I have two returns entering from opposite sides--one from the 1st and 2nd floor and one from the basement. If a mouse is trapped in the system and found its way down here, it would have to be in the supply plenum, right? It couldn't get from there to the blower section (as marked in the picture) without making its way through the blower motor. I ask because we ran the AC last night and unless I have a very talented mouse, it couldn't have crossed through.
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